[hungryforcodes]

OK but if you read the link you included WW specifically MADE an app for children and collected the data:

"the agency... marketed a weight loss app for use by children as young as eight and then collected their personal information without parental permission."

That is pretty wilful -- so we can be confident they have or had data targeted from children. Dropbox on the other hand -- I'm not sure how that case is similar. Are children now allowed to use cloud backup services? Why wouldn't they?

[varenc]

Fair point! That does seem like a key difference. But I still wouldn't be surprised if all tech industry legal/compliance teams have been spooked by this. Also under COPPA no one under 13 can make an online account for anything, regardless of what it is. So it's definitely still illegal for Dropbox/Twitter/HN to have 12 year olds with accounts (without parent consent).

They might just want to be able to demonstrate to the FTC that they're confident there's no children with accounts, instead of just telling the FTC "it's well known children don't really use cloud storage services anyway so we never bothered to ask for age".

[tyrfing]

If you read the link at the link, they specifically call out maintaining accounts of kids who revised their birthdate below the limit, and for encouraging kids to lie by stating they had to be at least 13.

> Are children now allowed to use cloud backup services? Why wouldn't they?

It's basically a service for storing personal information, so probably not without parental consent.

[hungryforcodes]

> It's basically a service for storing personal information, so probably not without parental consent.

I'm not sure I see the logic there. The previous poster who said in the US children under 13 are not allowed to have online accounts makes more sense legally.

[astura]

Children can obtain parental consent for some online accounts, if the site supports it. Ex. Microsoft -

https://support.microsoft.com/en-us/account-billing/parental...